SUJATA DABOLKAR
PERTH, AUSTRALIA
Call it unfortunate, but the inauguration of the World Gold Conference in Australia saw no Indian delegates, except for me. But India’s neighbour, China, had an overwhelming presence, followed by host nation Australia.
This showed how casually India takes the future of the industry despite spending $32 billion on gold imports annually.
The day witnessed technical talks, exhibition stalls, scientific posters and live demonstrations on gold refining. After seeing all these, I could compare and see where our country stands in this sector.
The organisation of the conference was impeccable, professional to the core and all delegates were treated with utmost courtesy. I didn’t notice any sort of racial discrimination -- everyone mixed freely and exchanged information.
The conference began with the welcome address by Dr Richard Walley, followed by Dr Leon Lorenzen, Executive Consultant at Lorenzen Consultants and Mintrex. The official opening of the conference was done by Janine Herzig, President AusIMM.
The first plenary presentation was done by Mike Erickson, which was based on understanding the intricacies of gold mining.
I noticed that the Chinese delegates were very attentive and taking down detailed notes. More than fifty percent delegates from that country made it look like Chinese Gold conference.
After Mike, mining technologist Simon Hille spoke on unlocking the sustainable values from gold mega projects. This was a new and complex subject. I wished it could help Kolar Gold fields in India which still have some recoverable gold deposits.
Plenary sessions were followed by e-poster sessions. These were very interesting and based on industrial models and strategies in gold mining and metallurgy.
In all 25 technical sessions on the first witnessed saw academicians displaying their work and patented models during the sessions.
There was one interesting poster session on how PhotonAssay Max technique can be used for analysis of gold. PhotonAssay Max, chrysos flagship product, allows safer and more environmentally-friendly alternative to the conventional fire assay technique for gold analysis.
There was another poster displayed by Geovariances, which explained on Isatis software. Isatis is the most comprehensive and advanced general purpose geostatistics toolbox that allows addressing very different issues from various industries, including mineral or life resource estimation, geomodeling, environmental mapping, risk analysis, and much more. This software could be very promising for mining industries in Goa.
It was surprising to see student delegates from different countries showing interest in the proceedings of the conference.
It was good to see the war-ravaged country like Sudan trying to revive its ancient gold mining industry.
I was overwhelmed by the outstanding organisation of the World Gold Conference on the first day. All technical sessions and talks were of high quality.
The good part was handling real Gold biscuits at the conference and watching the demonstration on Gold roasting process. Tomorrow (Thursday) we have a hectic and tight schedule with more technical presentations.
